The overall goal of this media plan is to increase the total number of members at the YWCA. Every year the Young Women’s Christian Association has events that reach out to our targeted audience and inform/educate women on an important matter. This year the YWCA is putting on an event called “A Week Without Violence” where we will have a workshop held each day during the last week of February. These workshops will be different each day, learning about domestic violence, Human Trafficking, bullying, etc.

Our primary target markets are our current existing members. The media plan approach we have decided to take is designed to secure the most members we have had here at the YWCA. Our secondary target audience is everyone in relation to our current members such as friends, family, significant others, co-workers, etc.

Our Media Plan is set to launch after the first of he year. We would like to start now on educating all women what likely events will be occurring during the upcoming months. Our media plan will conclude at the end of March followed by a survey to evaluate the success of the workshop for upcoming annual events.

History

The Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) was the daughter of the industrial revolution, which, from the middle of the nineteenth century started the movement of women and girls out of the home and rural areas and into factories throughout the Western world. This was also a time of religious revival which inspired Christian women in several countries to begin meeting the needs of such women for housing, education and support by starting the first YWCAs.

The World YWCA was founded through the convergence of a social activist Lady Mary Jane Kinnaird and the committed Christian Emma Robarts. Mary Jane Kinnaird, born in 1816, was a philanthropist committed to young women’s well being. Kinnaird was concerned about the safety of young women who moved to London city, often alone, to work or serve in the Crimean war. She raised funds and in 1855 set up housing for young single women in London. Equipped with a library, Bible classes and employment bureau, the housing provided a ‘warm Christian atmosphere’. Kinnaird and her associates hoped to help young women cope with the pressures of work and believed it was important to care for the souls of young women along with their physical and mental health.

The first world conference of the YWCA was held in 1898 in London, with 326 participants from seventeen countries from around the world. It was a pivotal point in the founding of the World YWCA, cementing the principles of unity based on service and faith on a global scale.

Media Objectives

Create awareness with all existing YWCA members, friends and family of current members, and possible new members of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking.

After the workshop, strengthen our relationship with our current members and encourage new members from our surrounding communities.

Encourage our primary audience to attend the workshop and our secondary audience to become more engaged in what the YWCA is and what it has to offer

Media Strategies:

Newspaper

Social media

Radio

Television

Competitive Analysis

Our biggest competitors are the local church groups and other local non-profit organizations especially targeted at women. Really any non-profit organizations can be our competitors. Some of our current competitors are The United Way, and Human Rights Watch.

United Way:

“To harness, leverage and strategically invest the collective power of donors, advocates and volunteers, to drive measurable results that improve the lives of people in our region”.

The United Way is a direct competitor of ours. It is a much bigger organization and it partnered up with some of the most well known profit organizations. A lot of their work is focused on education, financial stability, and health.

Human Rights Watch:

Human Rights Watch began in 1978 with the creation of Helsinki Watch. This organization is solely focused on the rights one has as a human and defends those rights. Human rights are abused everywhere all around the world and the Human Rights Watch is there to make change on that.

“Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all”.

Target Audience

Ideally our target audience is the entire US population but unfortunately that cost a lot of money so therefor we narrow our target audience and the entire US population is our secondary audience. Our primary audience is young women. We reach out to young energetic women eager to learn and grow to become the next leaders of the YWCA.

We plan to reach this audience through these media outlets:

Social Media

Radio

Television

Newspaper

The goal in using these media outlets is to reach out to these young women in the best way possible. We will reach them in this order of media because we feel like it is in order of the most effective ways to do so.

Our secondary audience is the families of these women, husbands, kids, and friends, including the entire Cedar Valley community.

Media Selections

Social Media:

Social media is a very big one for us because of the possibilities we have with it. Nowadays social media is so big in the younger generations especially with women. Our goal here is to attack every social media we possibly can. This is also one of our cheaper approaches, which also benefits us tremendously.

Because of its wide reach of possibilities to provide a variety of content, our social media approach reaches majority of or primary audience and a lot of our secondary as well.

The YWCA will have a twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat that will reach our targeted audience. We would like to take a little bit of a different approach with each social media and utilize each of those social medias for what they are best at.

Media Selections

Radio:

Radio reaches our audience in several ways. Their daily drive to work or school everyday, and a big one with young women is during their exercise at home or at a gym.

Our target audience listens to the following radio stations that we will utilize for our media campaign:

KKHQ 92.3 FM, Oelwein, Top-40

KULT 94.5 FM, Cedar Falls, College (UNI)

KOEL 98.5 FM, Cedar Falls, Country

KZIA 102.9 FM, Cedar Rapids, Top-40

Media Selections

Television:

This is a source we plan to use for our audience that doesn’t get reached through the previous two. Through television it will reach our audience by informing them with pictures and videos as well as vocally.

We plan to target local television that will broadcast news in the Cedar Valley area. We plan to use KWWL, and KGAN.

Media Selections

Newspaper:

Through this outlet we plan to target our audience by ads in the local papers informing the audience about the Week Without Violence workshop. With this we will provide the YWCA information (location, contact information, as well as a glimpse of our mission statement). The newspaper outlets we will use will be the Waterloo Cedar Falls – Courier, and the Northern Iowan. The Northern Iowan is one we believe will really target the younger women 18-23 in college.

The Plan

The Beginning:

The YWCA like many other non-profits struggles with the funds and resources to promote and encourage our surrounding communities to attend our special events. It’s not because it isn’t something people would want to attend but because we struggle with efficient ways to promote the events.

Therefore, we will be taking several different media plan approaches. We will be promoting our event through social media, radio, television, and print.

We will first start with promoting the event to our current members of the YWCA and the people that follow us on our social media pages. We will reach these people through social media by tweeting the upcoming event as well as the information, posting on our Facebook the upcoming event and the link that will take you to our website that will explain it in more depth. We will post Instagram pictures of “sneak peaks”. And we will post Snapchats of existing members talking about their previous experiences of our workshops and the excitement for the upcoming event. Snapchat will be a source we use for a more “behind the scenes” approach.

Social Media

twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Snapchat

Radio

KKHQ

KULT

KOEL

KZIA

Television

KWWL

KGAN

Newspaper

Waterloo CF Courier

Northern Iowan

December 2015

The Plan Continued

Middle Months:

During January we would have already reached majority of our target audience through social media. Our goal here is to start to push the event a little more since the event will be taking place at the end of February. At this time is when we will start to give some more information about the event and what all is going to take place so people can start to mark their calenders.

Plan January 2016

Social Media

twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Snapchat

Radio

KKHQ

KULT

KOEL

KZIA

Television

KWWL

KGAN

Newspaper

Waterloo CF Courier

Northern Iowan

The Plan Continued

The Month of A Week Against Violence:

This is the month that we will do the most promoting for the event. The point of this is to remind those people that found out about it back in December and may have put it off. The goal is to promote it as best as we can to our primary and secondary audiences.

Once as our Week Without Violence Workshop has taken place we will highly recommend a short online survey provided to their emails asking for opinions from our audiences and seeking their advice for future events the YWCA puts on.

Plan Feb. 2016

Social Media

twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Snapchat

Radio

KKHQ

KULT

KOEL

KZIA

Television

KWWL

KGAN

Newspaper

Waterloo CF Courier

Northern Iowan

Budget

The YWCA expects this event to be a successful one. Our plan is to reach over 150,000 people to the YWCA “A Week Without Violence”.

For this event we have the sufficient funds although we have struggled in the past. We believe the right planning and smart budgeting will help tremendously with the outcome of this event.

That being said, our revenue will come from two big sources for this event, sponsorships and the actual ticket sales that go along with the event.

Some of the previous sponsors of the YWCA include Honda, Wells Fargo, and some local families.

Budget Continued

Sponsorship Revenues:

Hy-Vee

5 sponsors

Sponsor Amount: $250

Sponsor Total: $1,250

Deery Motors

4 sponsors

Sponsor Amount: $1,000

Sponsor Total: $4,000

Ticket Revenue:

Student Tickets: $15

Number of Tickets Sold: 250

Total Ticket Revenue: $3,750

Adult Ticket: $50

Number of Tickets Sold: 1,000

Total Ticket Revenue: $50,000

5-Day Ticket Pass: $150

Number of Tickets Sold: 2,500

Total Ticket Revenue: $375,000

Sponsor Total: $434,000

Expense Projection:

Speaker Services: $1,500/day

5 Days: $7,500

Venue: $5,000/day

5 Days: $25,000

Advertising:

Television: $50,000

Radio: $35,000

Print: $15,000

Miscellaneous: $20,000

Expense Total: $152,500

Revenues – Expenses: $282,000

Evaluation

It is crucial to evaluate our media efforts after all that went into the media plan. By having them fill out and submit surveys in regards to “A Week Without Violence” it allows us to get the feedback we need for future events. Through this we hope to learn the strengths and weaknesses of our plan.

After the event we will send then a short survey to their emails that will allow them to evaluate the workshop. We are hoping with our target audience being the young female will be good about returning the surveys since they will be sent as emails. We are hoping for about a 30% return rate.

Out of the surveys returned we hope to hear positive things about our event. The surveys received that may be seen as negative we will use the information to help us improve in the future on our media plans and events.

We will also evaluate who attended and go over the primary and secondary audiences and see if anything needs to be changed there.

Donations are another crucial part of the evaluation. The new and previous donations will be looked over and compared to the attendees of previous events and now present.

Once all of the evaluations have been received and studied by the YWCA we will be sure to make strides in our next events with this essential information.

Alternative Recommendations

Future Recommendations:

The YWCA took away several things from this particular event. We learned what went well and what needed to improve. A few future recommendations that we picked up on were to have less media outlets. We could strategically cut a few media outlets just because they weren’t completely utilized which ultimately would have saved us some money.

We also know we could have gone beyond the Cedar Valley area and targeted further out than that.

Closing Statement

As a part of the YWCA, we have a history of success with special events. “A Week Without Violence” will be the largest workshop this organization has put on.

The even is scheduled for the Last week of February, the 22nd through the 26th. Current members, young women, and people all over the Cedar Valley will be informed through a variety of media outlets beginning in December 2015 until February 2016. We will utilize these mediums to the best of our ability with our given budget to get the best outcome.

There are many competitors that we have as we have faced before but with the extensive understanding of our audience and our competitors, we believe this Media Plan for the YWCA is a success.

France has a vast history of advances in technology. France was the third country to have satellites up, behind the US and Russia. The world’s fastest trains originated in France (Waylon). In France, consumers use credit cards with a chip inserted in them. This technology helps to prevent identity theft and fraud. France leads the US in wifi, as well. Currently, France is the leader in nuclear energy. France is active in developing nuclear weapons. Reactors and fuel products and services are a major export for France. France is known for it’s cuisine. French cooking requires attention to detail and presentation. Not only is food a major part of French culture, but wine,art, and fashion are as well. Paris is the fashion capital of the world and is home to high end fashion houses such as Dior, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Chanel. France attracts tourists to its many historical sites, as well. The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur to name a few. France is also home to perhaps the most famous painting of all time; The Mona Lisa.

The average French family is small and Catholic. French culture was influenced by Celtic and Gallo-Roman cultures as well as the Franks, a Germanic tribe. France is known to be a loving romantic culture, however as an impact of the country’s secular nature, about half of children are born to unmarried couples.

France has the world’s sixth-largest economy by nominal figures. It has a population over 63 million. It has the third largest economy in Europe behind the UK (1) and Germany (2). Their economic environment has been in a stand still the last several years which is what has led to a large percentage of unemployment. This unemployment has been found mostly in the younger generation. Tourism is a major contributor to France’s economy. France is the most visited destination in the world.

France has a relatively open press; almost identical to the United States. France has certain laws that will limit the amount of information they are allowed to share. France strengthened a law that is used to protect journalists and their sources. Thus, journalists are only required to disclose information when the authorities are investigating a serious crime. The High Authority for the Dissemination of Creative Works and Protection of Rights on the Internet was put into act in September 2010. It issued out three warnings before consequences when someone violated the internet laws. Unfortunately, this law was a bust. This multi-million project was defunded in December 2012 when it only resulted with one $200 fine and two cases that were dismissed. On a scale from 1 (best) to 100 (worst) for amount of press freedom, France is ranked at a 23. The United States is at a 22, Niger is at 51, and Iran is at a 90, to put it in perspective.

The French like messages that are completely credible and innovative. By using science and technology, these add that necessary credibility needed to create a believable message. Whatever message PR firms are trying to send, they must demonstrate that the person sending the message understands the target audience. In French, they generally refer to public relations as “RP” meaning “Relations Presse.”

Social structure is the socioeconomics of social institutions or other relationships between social groups. It is the structure of the social network between organizations or individuals. Women also play a growing role in politics in France, and they take up 53% of the electorate votes. Unemployment and lower class living has increasingly become a social norm in certain areas of France. There are social norms in France just for daily life. More than 60% of people live in homes opposed to apartments or townhouses. The two most popular sports are tennis and cycling. The most known bicycle race in the world is the Tour de France.

On September 22, 1792 France declared its freedom from King Louis XVI and established a constitution and a Republic. At the end of the Nazi regime during World War II in 1946 France established its fourth republic. In 1958 France revised its constitution yet again, and created the Fifth French Republic. This is the republic that France is currently in. The people elect their president for a term of five years and the president appoints the prime minister. France has come a long way from a monarchy government to a working republic that allows the people to have their say.

The french law system can be divided into two different sections: public law and private law. Private law governs relationships between individuals, which includes civil law, commercial law and employment law. Public law governs relationships between the state and individuals, which includes criminal law, administration law and constitutional law. When handling cases of normal crimes, there are 3 judges and 9 jurors. However, when handling cases of illegal drug trade and terrorism there will only be three judges. The less serious felonies and misdemeanors are handled by the criminal court, which is preceded over by either 3 judges or 1 judge. Finally, minor offenses such as, traffic violations, are heard by the police court.

For our awareness campaign we chose Cerebral Palsy. We chose Cerebral Palsy, because there are many misconceptions about it. There is a wide range of severity and each case is unique to the individual. Cerebral meaning brain and palsy refers to loss or impairment of motor function. In our research we found that there are more than 200,000 cases each year. This is the most common motor disability in children, affecting 1 out of 323 children.

Our objectives for our campaign is to get people informed about Cerebral Palsy and help the families that are affected by it.

To achieve our objectives we have come up with an idea for a 5k on March 25th in the Cedar Valley. We chose March 25th as the date because that is National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day. To get people to come to our event we will create social media sites to update and excite the community about our event. We will also have flyers put in hospitals, health clinics, schools, daycares, and other public areas where families will see them. We will also put an ad in The Courier and The Northern Iowan to get participates, as well as volunteers for the event. Another way we are going to try is get an interview with a local TV station, so they can put the story on their website. We feel this will really raise awareness around the entire community.

Now to the details of our event for our 5k each participate will get a t-shirt when they register. Registration is $40 and in the registration will be an option of joining a support group, as well as the option to make a donation to The Cerebral Palsy Foundation. The families or people with CP will get green shirts and runners supporting will get white shirts with green lettering. While at the 5k there will be booklets providing the families and community with more information about Cerebral Palsy.

Finally for the evaluation of our campaign. Our campaign is strong in the fact that we make the public aware of the families in their community the experience CP on a regular basis. Another good thing our campaign offers families to join support groups if they so choose. Finally, our event will raise money for The Cerebral Palsy Foundation which will help other families. The only weakness of our campaign maybe that fact that there are a lot of awareness campaigns, so it maybe hard to stand out.

Uptown Tots is a children’s clothing store located in downtown Cedar Falls, IA. The store was opened by the owner Ruth Ernst-Beek in 2013. Ruth has over 25 years of retail experience and decided to give the Cedar Valley more options for their children’s clothing needs. The store carries upscale, designer clothing for infants through children’s youth sizes. The store tries to stay current on trends and desires of target markets. In addition to clothing, Uptown Tots also carries toys, educational materials, and infant supplies for young parents.

Uptown Tots is known around the Cedar Valley for the cloth diapers that they sell. Cloth diapers have just recently re-entered the market as a trendy item. Though cloth diapers were very common in the past, more and more new moms are starting to like the idea again. Saving money and being environmentally friendly make cloth diapers a very attractive option to our target market.

Currently, Uptown Tots has an online store. This store features only a few select items that they carry in the actual store. Items such as clothing and toys are featured on the site. These items are available to customers in the continental United States.

II.Environment Analysis

Internal Environment

Social media is a big way they reach their customers. Their marketing is really geared towards the community they are in which is one of their goals. They are continuously using their marketing to try to grow because that is the main way they try to reach out to their customers as well as possible new customers.

Uptown Tots has done several things to promote their products, and they have been successful throughout the Cedar Falls area. They have taken an approach to reach their targeted audience by keeping their social media feeds up to date with their latest and greatest trends. A big way they touch on promotion is posting pictures on facebook as well as posting pictures and videos on instagram. They post tweets and statuses letting their followers know what they currently have to offer. They have also posted blogs in the past talking about their products. The blogs give information on specialty products such as cloth diapering, and explaining why this is a cheaper and more efficient way.

Uptown Tots offers a lot of great trendy fashions for children that you can’t find at regular retailers. They also are great at staying up to date with current trends in the mom world such as the newly reinvented cloth diapers. Uptown Tots has great quality products from top brands in the baby industry, though their prices may be higher, you know you’re getting great value with these products.

External Environment

Competitive Forces

Target: Expect more. Pay less. Target is the second largest discount retail store in the United States. As of 2015, Target operates 1,802 locations throughout the United States. Target Corporation is consistently ranked as one of the most generous companies in the US. It ranked No. 22 in Fortune magazine’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” for 2010. Target has had success hitting their targeted market. They have a wide variety of a targeted market including infant, toddler, and children’s clothes and accessories. They have had a lot of success in this department. One of the few things that have helped them in the past is their variety of selection. It is easier to target mothers shopping for their kids when you are also targeting the mother’s needs as well.

Babies”R”Us: Toys“R”Us, Inc. is the world’s leading dedicated toy and baby products retailer, offering a differentiated shopping experience through its family of brands. Their mission statement is “We are relentlessly striving to be the best toy and baby products retail company in the world!” They are appealing to children because of the wide variety of their toy selection. In order to achieve their objectives, they focus on four key strategic pillars: make talent and culture a competitive advantage, grow and build the Toys“R”Us and Babies“R”Us brands throughout the world, create a world-class experience for their customers and create a strong financial foundation. They have so much success due to the name they have created for themselves over the year and how large the brand has become.

Peekaboo: Peekaboo is located on Main Street in Cedar Falls next to Uptown Tots. They are a direct competitor to Uptown Tots because of their location, style, and targeted audience. Peekaboo strives to make the one childhood that children are given a special one. Their goal is to provide children with the best experience by providing children with products they can’t find in a regular superstore. They specialize in the specialty furniture they provide. Due to them being a small business in the Cedar Valley community and targeting the same audience they are automatically a competitor to Uptown Tots.

Economic Forces

Economic Environment: consumer spending is up and the economy is stable. This will give Uptown Tots consumers more freedom to purchase products for their children and families. Uptown Tots is located in Cedar Falls, Iowa. This is a community that shares both high income as well as low income throughout. Uptown Tots is targeted towards the average and higher income wages. With a wide variety of clothes and accessories and what they have to offer then that expands the willingness to spend throughout the Cedar Valley community. Since Cedar Falls is not a large city completely full of wealth, in order for them to be successful they have to aim towards a reasonable target as well as find a way to make the store successful.

Political Forces

Small private business can always go one way or the other just like many large corporate companies can as well. Often times large corporate companies already have made a name for themselves even if they are new to the area. This is because they are usually known nationally or in other big cities. Whereas a small private business has to be smart and choose wisely where they may want to start up. For a small private business they really have to have a targeted market in mind and chose a location where the targeted market can be reached. Uptown Tots chose the Cedar Valley community for several reasons. Uptown Tots provides exactly what its consumers need and are looking for. It is a community constantly evolving and growing and Uptown Tots is there to grow with them and the children and provide them with the best childhood experience.

Legal and Regulatory Forces

There are many regulations that children’s toys, clothing, and accessories are required to meet. Safety regulations are huge especially with baby products. All toys intended for the use of children of the ages 12 and under must be third party tested and cleared by the Children’s Product Certificate. This is a certificate written up based on rules, tests, and regulations that make up the safety of baby toys. Uptown Tots offers a variety of toys for infants and children under the age of 12 that have all met the legal requirements. They have also taken on an up and coming trend among parents, cloth diapers. Cloth diapers have found their way back into the spotlight for several reasons. They are much cheaper than disposable diapers, they are healthier for your baby since disposable diapers contain tons of chemicals, and they are much better for the environment. There are no huge legalities when it comes to cloth diapers except where they are and are not allowed when it comes to day cares. Every parent has the option to use cloth diapers for their baby but not ever daycare across the board is required to allow them. There are still about 40% of daycares that do not accept them in their care.

Technological Forces

Social media is a popular medium of communication. The popularity and ease of social medium will benefit Uptown Tots. The store has the ability to post specials, sales, and to promote new products. The low cost of websites allows businesses to create them. Technologically Uptown Tots is making strides. They have created a very active Facebook page that is always offering photos of the newest styles and trends and giving customers previews of infants and toddlers modeling the photos. They have also created a twitter account updating their followers on upcoming events, specials, and newest arrivals. One of the most underestimated technological advances they have made is their Instagram account. Instagram is strictly pictures that Uptown Tots post of the fashionable clothes and accessories. Uptown Tots is currently working on improving their online shopping store which is also another outlet that will be a large success for them once it is finished being updated and improved. This gives their customers another shopping option as well as people in the surrounding communities who may be unable to shop there as frequently as desired.

Sociocultural Forces

Uptown Tots is constantly making adjustments due to the influences by the society and the culture. High end baby clothes are becoming more and more popular. They are always trying to stay up to date with the newest trends and fads. They also feed off of the Cedar Valley community and are constantly on the lookout for what the people want. The way people live, their beliefs, and their norms play a huge role in the adjustments made by Uptown Tots. They are always striving to be one step ahead of the rest of their competitors as well as the surrounding community. Not only do they keep up with the changes in culture, but they also try to create their own. Their goal is to create clothes and accessories for the fashion forward young ones becoming the next generation.

The nature of the market: The baby market is huge! Not only do people buy baby items for gifts but moms and dads love to spoil their children with top brands. The brand name also helps show value to the customer.

Competitors and their strategies: Peekaboo is a baby store next to Uptown Tots. This designer store offers similar products to Uptown Tots. Peekaboo utilizes social media for frequently as a way to promote their products. They also offer more products than Uptown Tots such as furniture. Peekaboo does not have an online store. Babies R Us,. Walmart, Kohls, and Target are national retail stores. Retail stores are well known inexpensive products that people trust. You can go to these stores all over the country. They use this to their advantage in marketing strategies by using the familiarity and price they are able to provide.

Current Marketing Objectives and Performance

Marketing enhances the vision of the online store and creates awareness for audiences. By making the online store easy to use, trendy, and eye-catching, it will grab the attention of consumers. With marketing, we can also find out what our consumers want to see on the online store and what they are drawn to. This can give us an idea of what other consumers in the state, and even the nation may be attracted to and want to see from the store. Marketing needs to attract a wider range of customers for the store and expand the online store. By doing this, the business can gain profits and consumers, as well as make their name known.

SWOT Analysis- Megan

Strengths:

Location-local store in a small city. It’s easy to access for target market

Trendy-offer trendy and functional clothing for children

Online and in-store shopping-they are able to offer convenience for customers when buying products

Higher Prices-they have more expensive items than some of their competitors. Some families might think that the products are too expensive, or they might not be able to afford to buy them.

Exposure- Uptown Tots is well-known in the Cedar Valley but not statewide or nationally.

Opportunities:

Expansion-it is very popular right now to buy high end products for children. They could break into the global market of high end children’s clothing. They can expand their online store and inventory as well.

Wider variety of clothing options which are more fashion forward.

Offering other products than just clothing

Threats:

Competition- Big Retailers(Target and Walmart), Specialty Retailers(Babies R Us), and local stores like Peekaboo which is a baby store right next door.

Competitors with lower costs

Easy to knock-off by offering similar products at a lower price

Uptown Tots Goal: To increase sales by 5% each year

Marketing Objectives-

Broaden Target Markets to include fathers and grandparents

Update the online store to include all inventory to reach more consumers

Add variety to inventory to appeal to new target markets

Bring more fashion forward items to appeal to our target markets

Marketing Strategies

Target markets and positioning

Uptown Tots will continue to market towards its primary market which is mothers of small children, but it will also expand the target market to fathers and grandparents. The idea would be to make products simpler and more enjoyable for these demographics to shop for at Uptown Tots. This would happen by expanding the products that are sold at Uptown Tots. The store will focus its energies on consumers who will express brand loyalty and support the mission of Uptown Tots which is to give options for parents to buy high quality products for their children.

All products will be sold on the online store, not just select items. By putting the whole store online you are reaching a whole new market beyond that of local Cedar Falls. With proper advertising and implementation, Uptown Tots will be able to reach consumers all over the United States.

Product strategies

The store would begin to sell sports toys for toddlers and interactive games they can play with their families and friends. Every different kind of product would be labeled with a distinct section to make products more accessible.

Although Uptown Tots will continue to have the traditional cutesy baby clothing, they would also begin to integrate new styles. It is becoming a huge trend to dress babies and toddlers like adults and have style that is more fashion forward. Uptown Tots will respond to this trend by purchasing new items that would represent the want for this type of clothing. About 83% of babies are born to Millennial Moms. These moms want these new trends that they are seeing on their social media platforms such as pinterest and instagram. Our cloth diapers are a really great seller as well, so we will continue to carry a great selection of those. In addition to all these items, Uptown Tots will begin to carry more gadgets. There are always a lot of new trendy baby gadgets hitting the market and we will be quick to adopt these products.

Pricing strategies

Everything sold by Uptown Tots would reflect the high quality of the products and their brands. All the items being sold would have an individual price. Our pricing strategy will be odd-number pricing. This is a very common way that many companies price their products, so it will not be unfamiliar to our consumers. When introducing a brand new product to our consumers we will use the price skimming strategy. After the product has been around for awhile and demand begins to level out, we will lower our prices on that product. Factors such as manufacturing, storage, and delivery fees will all be considered while deciding the selling price of each individual item. Uptown Tots will also consider its competition when pricing products. For delivery and shipping, Uptown Tots will use the United States Postal Service because of its reliability and reputation.

Promotional strategies

A big presence on various social media platforms will help get the word out about Uptown Tots. Being able to purchase products online means that our consumers aren’t just local anymore, but nation wide. By posting about Uptown Tots online, more and more people will have the opportunity to find our online store and purchase products online. Having a presence on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest will cost the company little to nothing and has the potential to bring in customers from all over the nation.

Local downtown events such as Sturgis Falls, Ladies Night, and other seasonal festivals are a great way to advertise our products and build relationships with the families of Cedar Falls. During these events we will have special-event pricing in relation to the event we are participating in. Uptown Tots will be introducing Uptown Tots Tuesdays where every Tuesday we will run a sale on all apparel items. All apparel items will be on sale for 25% off throughout the entire store. Also, at least once a month, Uptown Tots will post on their social media accounts notifying customers of a Flash Sale where the chosen items will be 50% off for a limited time. This random discounting will encourage people to follow us on social media to stay up to date on promotions and special events.

Marketing Implementation- Megan

Action:

Begin:

End:

Responsible Party:

Cost:

Comments:

Update all items on the online store to include all inventory

June 1st

Ongoing

Ecommerce Sales Intern

$0.00

Hiring an intern to work on handling all ecommerce sales and shipment will be a great addition to the Uptown Tots team

Buy more clothing items to appeal to new target markets

Twice a year – Spring & Fall

Evaluate every 3 months

Owner/

Store manager

$500 per month as budget allows

After evaluation, determine how much should be bought for upcoming season

Grow social media presence

June 1st

Ongoing

Social Media Intern/Owner

$0.00

Begin scheduled posting on social media handles such as Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Expand inventory of sporting equipment, toys, and trendy gadgets

Twice a year – Spring & Fall

Evaluate every 3 months

Owner/Store Manager

$250 per month as budget allows

Expanding the products being sold in the store in order to appeal to target markets.

Budget:

The marketing implementation for Uptown Tots does not require much for the businesses budget. There are a few things that will need to be taken into account, but there is not a lot. For two of our action plans we will be using interns to fill those positions and do that work for Uptown Tots. The next action is to buy more clothing products to appeal to new target markets. This will cost the business about $500 a month. The next action is to expand the inventory of sporting equipment, toys, and gadgets. This will cost about $250 a month. Both of these plans are based on a monthly basis. It is an ongoing budget amount for Uptown Tots. The budget for this plan calls for the business to have about $750 set aside each month for these action plans. The total amount per month would be $750 for the overall budget.

Performance Evaluation

Because Uptown Tots is a clothing store, the products available will change season to season. Every three months Uptown Tots will evaluate itself in order to reflect on how well the store is doing. After each evaluation the store management can decide on how successful the current pricing, promotion, and product strategies are doing. After we evaluate how we are doing, we can then move on to buying more products or having special promotions on existing products remaining in the store. If we are reaching our current goals we can adjust our objectives to strive to do even better. If we are not meeting our goals we can go back and look over where we could improve and adjust from there.